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breaking news

Miami Dolphins ticket prices will go up next season

MIAMI GARDENS – For the first time in two seasons, the Miami Dolphins are going to increase ticket prices, raising the cost by an average of 5.8 percent.

But season-ticket holders won’t feel the pinch as much as single-game buyers, who could pay 12- to 25-percent more per ticket than in 2009.

Dolphins CEO Mike Dee said the team is looking to increase a season-ticket fan base that ranked in the bottom third of the NFL last season.

“The season-ticket base is the lifeblood of a successful sports franchise,” he said.

To pump up season-ticket numbers, the Dolphins the average price of a season ticket purchased by March 31 will be $70.54 per game, compared with $92.69 for single-game tickets.

In 2009, the average season ticket coast $66.76, while a season-game ticket was $81.38.

“A season ticket-holder should pay considerably less because he or she is making a 10-game commitment to us,” Dee said.

The Dolphins hope to sell around 55,000 season tickets in 2010 for the 75,000-seat Sun Life Stadium.

Last season, Miami’s season-ticket fan base increased to 49,415, but had nowhere to go but up.

Following a 1-15 season, the Dolphins sold just 46,134 season tickets in 2008, the lowest total since 1992.

This dip also came just two seasons after the a team-record 61,121 season tickets were sold in 2006, coach Nick Saban’s second and final season with the team.

Under the new plan, the Dolphins will raise the ticket price of 56 percent of the seating in Sun Life Stadium, but 31-percent of the seating will remain the same price and 13 percent will go down.

Dee said the Dolphins spent several months determining a new pricing plan to balance the tough economic times with where the market would bear price increases.

To study the issue, the Dolphins hire Harvard economics professor Robert Stavins and some professors from M.I.T. – group Dee also commissioned when he was CEO of the Boston Red Sox.

“We tried to take a really scientific approach to this process,” he said.

The result is a noticeable price increase for the best seats in Sun Life Stadium, with no increase or a price break for the seats the teams struggles to sell.

While the prices in the lower-seating level close to the field generally will go up, 82-percent of the seats located in the stadium’s upper level will either remain the same price or even decrease.

But the best deals will be for season-ticket holders.

The 4,600-seat section in the upper level of the east end zone, for example, is available to season-ticket holders for $34 per game, or $45 for single-game tickets.

Meanwhile, the seats located in the stadium’s south side behind the Dolphins’ sideline and on the shadier side of the field will cost $115 per game for season-ticket holders, and as much as $150 for single-game tickets.